“It takes four hours to reach Kuwait from India but it took four decades for the Prime Minister (of India).” The statement was typical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s style of cocking a snook at his political rivals even on foreign soil, while praising his own record of governance and diplomacy. Modi’s visit underscored the diplomatic and strategic neglect of a region that should have been of vital importance to New Delhi. The last Indian PM to visit Kuwait was Indira Gandhi in 1981. Modi’s latest diplomatic foray was well timed to serve India’s interests.
For decades after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, the latter was justifiably upset at India’s ambivalence on the violation of its sovereignty. There may have been good reasons for Delhi’s position: The geopolitics of the time, India’s relative closeness to the erstwhile Soviet Union and its sympathy for Ba’athist governments like Hussein’s. The problem was that, in subsequent years, few attempts were made to bridge the divide even though Kuwait re-opened its doors to Indian workers, across sectors and skill levels. India’s engagement with West Asia and the Persian Gulf, particularly the moderate Arab states, has recovered and deepened considerably over the last decade. The challenge for Delhi now is to ensure that the warmth is translated into concrete national gains.
The visit came at an important moment in the broader region. The continuing bombardment of Gaza by Israel, and attacks on Lebanon and Yemen are making West Asia peace a more fragile and distant proposition. The ouster of the Assad regime from Syria has also empowered Islamist radicals and could spell more violence. In addition, key Indian infrastructure and connectivity initiatives such as the I2U2 and IMEC may not see any further progress until the situation stabilises. The incoming Trump administration’s domestic priorities in the US and Europe’s pre-occupation with the Russia-Ukraine conflict will leave a possible vacuum of support and leadership for many of the world’s other trouble spots. This is an important moment for India to strengthen bilateral ties with each of the countries in the region, and secure energy and connectivity lines.
Strategic partnership
Modi held several meetings, including with Kuwait’s Amir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and Crown Prince Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah and Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah. Leaders of both countries have agreed to elevate the relationship to a strategic partnership. They have also signed agreements that institutionalise defence co-operation, as well as on other areas such as renewables. For India, Kuwait is also a key source of investment – singly and as the current president of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC). About 89 per cent of the total FDI from the GCC has been received in the last decade and bilateral trade between India and Kuwait in the last fiscal year was over $10 billion, which is considerable given Kuwait’s smaller size.
Kuwait is India’s sixth largest crude supplier and fourth largest LPG supplier, meeting 3 per cent of its energy needs. However, while people-to-people links and trade have continued, ties have lagged in strategic areas and defence co-operation, with some residual misgivings due to India’s close ties with Saddam’s Iraq. This is a gap that Modi’s visit sought to bridge.
Half a million Indians work there, making them the largest expatriate community. This community has grown on the foundations laid by historical trade and travel ties – few would remember that Kuwait was an entrepôt for India’s trading routes across West Asia, courtesy the British East India company; the Kuwaiti elite had homes in Mumbai and, until 1961, when Kuwait won its independence, the Indian rupee was legal tender there.
The visit served as a valuable reminder of the country’s biggest strategic asset: its people. More than eight million Indians live in the Gulf. From care-givers to construction workers, oil engineers to entrepreneurs, they serve as the region’s first introduction to India. While the UAE and Saudi Arabia host the largest populations among that workforce, it is Kuwait that has for long epitomised the dreams and the despair that accompany life in the Gulf for millions of Indians. The country, home to the third-largest chunk of Indians in the Gulf, was the theatre where India carried out the largest-ever evacuation. After Saddam invaded Kuwait, India air-lifted more than 170,000 nationals to safety back home. More recently, over 40 Indians were killed in a horrific fire in Kuwait. That incident underscored how, more than three decades after the evacuation, Indian blue-collar workers in the Gulf continue to remain vulnerable.